Posts with tag valor

We mentioned already that item upgrades would become purchasable with Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. Now, Blizzard has clarified a host of changes to how currency will work in Patch 6.0 and beyond. In addition to being used to upgrade items, Lesser Charms will now be directly tradeable for Warforged Seals, and there's no longer a restriction on how many you can get in a week - You can dump literally all of your Lesser Charms to Seals if you so desire.

Other changes include the utter removal of Valor and Justice points (not Honor/Conquest, those remain), the removal of the Test of Valor component of the legendary cloak quest (you can still get the cloak, you just don't need to get the Valor points first), and the switching of all honor/justice items over to costing gold to purchase, including heirloom items.

You can read the post here.

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There are lots of changes headed to WoW in patch 6.0, but perhaps the scariest change is the removal of valor and justice points, which have served as a primary form of in-game currency for quite a while. However, Blizzard staff have been working to reassure people that the loss of these currencies isn't the end of the world (or even the end of World of Warcraft).

Almost everything you'd currently buy with valor or justice you'll be able to buy with gold moving forward, so heirlooms will have a gold cost. The one exception is with item upgrades, which you'll be able to purchase with Lesser Charms of Good Fortune (for Mists gear only; Warlords gear won't be upgradable) after patch 6.0 lands. Though the number may change before release, currently the cost is 50 charms per upgrade, with no cap on the amount of charms or how many upgrades you can do a week. Additionally, with valor being gone, the Test of Valor phase of the legendary quest chain is being removed. For those of you trying to level and gear alts before Warlords of Draenor arrives, this will be a big help -- provided patch 6.0's arrival date leaves enough time to make use of them.

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Recently on twitter, Bashiok raised my hopes with a simple tweet.

.@Itaku Agree a cap increase buff could be cool, but increasing the Valor cap is non-trivial. Would require a client-side patch.

- Bashiok (@Bashiok) July 11, 2014

Because frankly, this late into the expansion, getting an alt fully geared up should be something we can do at whatever pace we want. I get Bashiok's point about how it's not as easy as just flipping a switch, but frankly, I don't think the current valor cap serves much of a purpose. The weekly/total caps of 1000/3000 serve a gatekeeping role that was much more important back in Mists of Pandaria's salad days, when the content was new and we were concerned about getting metaphoric tummyaches.

Now, it's the equivalent of leftovers, and if people want to just pile on those leftovers, we should be applauding their efforts and letting them. I say, remove the weekly cap entirely, raise the total cap to 4000 and let people run wild if they so desire. Treat valor as a buffet. (I may have been hungry when I started thinking about this issue.) We'll see a complete redesign to Valor in Warlords anyway, so might as well just relax the gateway for now.

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With patch 5.4.8 we're seeing a new way to achieve an old goal - allow players to get further in established content while it remains the most recent content available. In essence, with this patch, we will be able to buy slightly increased ability to progress with valor points. This isn't new - it's what the item upgrade system has always been.

I've been thinking about the new item upgrades and the Deeds of Valor since they were announced. I haven't been able to play WoW as I'd like lately (health reasons) but one of the things that immediately came to mind when they announced Deeds of Valor was that this was an entirely new way to nerf raid content at the end of an expansion. Instead of a progressive buff to the players, or a progressive nerf to the bosses, we're seeing a mechanical way to spend valor points to gain the same ultimate aim. Making it possible to trade in your Timeless Coins for valor points is a good way for players who are flush from constant Timeless Isle grinding to convert them to something useful, and allowing players to upgrade items an additional 2 times (for a total of four upgrades) serves to nerf content without nerfing it. Everyone will be stronger, will hit harder, will have more mana for heals.

I have some opinions about this, of course. Others have already expressed theirs - and to be fair I accept the basic premise that these are quality of life changes that will cease to matter in patch 6.0. And I'm okay with that, because again, I see this primarily as a way to nerf Siege of Orgrimmar without actually doing so. It gives us another valor dump, of course. But with changes like Heart of the Valorous (which won't be live when 5.4.8 drops) it feels as if valor itself is being made into a progression mechanic.

If you have items you haven't upgraded yet, you should know that item upgrading is going away as of patch 6.0 - any items you have already upgraded will remain so, but you won't be able to upgrade any new items once the patch drops. So if you've been lax, like I have lately, it's time to get serious about your valor points and get everything upgraded before that time.

Honestly, I'm not really all that sad about losing valor upgrading - it lately felt like that was all you could do with the points anyway. So I won't miss it that much. It would be nice if they added something to do with valor points once 6.0 drops - I'm always a sucker for cosmetic items, hint hint.

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Okay, truth time - I can solo any five player heroic dungeon in Mists of Pandaria, as long as it doesn't have mechanics that prevent me. If I'm even concerned that I'll take too much damage and die, I'll pop on my tank set and go prot, but many times it isn't even a concern. Blow all my DPS cooldowns, blow my defensive cooldowns when I'm at about half health, boss falls over. Done it in Mogu'shan Palace and Scarlet Monastery. And I'm hardly the exception here - the fact is, the Mists of Pandaria dungeons were introduced at the beginning of the expansion and tuned so that players in ilevel 450 gear could complete them.

I'm at around ilevel 576.

Even players who are just in flex or LFR gear out gear these instances immensely. If a DPS player in full SoO LFR gear goes into Mogu'shan Palace and decides to pull more mobs than the tank was ready or waiting for, he or she can probably DPS them all down before dying themselves, especially if they get a few heals. Meanwhile, even the tanks can often put out enough damage (while taking so very little and having various means to heal it up) that they can basically solo the whole place if they want to, leaving absolutely everyone in the group feeling very little need to actually play as a group. As many, many people point out to me on twitter, it's just assumed that everyone is going to pull like crazy, so even undergeared players in a specific role often assume it's going to happen and react. Maybe your tank doesn't want to pull like a fiend, but they saw your gear and thought they had to in order to keep control of the dungeon. The lines of group communication have broken down into a silence that masks intent - runs are zoned into and pulled with grim efficiency.

Into this veil of silence enters you, the player. So what can be done about it?

I've talked before about the need to simplify currency going forward, and I'm far from the only one. Now it appears Blizzard agrees - Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas' made that very clear on twitter recently.

@Glommerwort We'll have more info soon. We do want to streamline our currency system overall, though.

- Watcher (@WatcherDev) February 25, 2014

Clearly this topic came up during this interview with PC Games N, which emphasized a bit more the idea of the complexity of current currency systems. The bonus roll system currently in play in Mists of Pandaria was mentioned as an alternative to valor. "We think we can take the bonus rolls system and make it a little bit more intelligent, so that it tries to avoid giving you duplicate loots - and allow that to be the way players counteract bad RNG. It removes a little bit of the grind and a little bit of the awkwardness of the current valor system."

While no announcement has been made yet about how Blizzard will streamline its currency, it's good to know they're aware of and focused on the issue.

We here at WoW Insider see a few questions pretty much every time a new patch is announced. Often, we see these same questions asked repeatedly, many times after we've answered them. So, out of a desire to be helpful (and to have a place to point folks) here are a few of those questions, answered for you here.

Q: What is happening to my Valor/Conquest points in patch 5.4?
A: Your Conquest points will be converted to Honor. If you have 4000 honor already, or will be pushed over the 4000 honor mark by the conversion, they will be converted to gold. All other points, be they Valor, Justice, or Honor points will not be converted.

Q: What new gear can I get for Valor points?
A: None. There is no new Valor gear. Shado-Pan Assault gear will still cost Valor, but will be discounted by 34%. All other current Valor gear (from the original reputation gear to the Patch 5.1 items) will now cost Justice Points instead.

More questions answered following the jump.

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And you thought the guy with 50 level 85+ characters was crazy.

Last week, we met a player who's packed his entire account (five realms and 50 character slots, all told) with level 85+ characters. This week, we visit yet another plane of insanity: a player who's valor-capped every character on a realm (11 level 90 characters) in a single week -– more specifically, every single week, because Bluespartan of Lightbringer (US) has been valor-capping his entire crew like clockwork every week for the last four weeks in a row.

"Didn't really set out to do it, but with the changes to patch 5.3, it became viable despite working full time," he muses. "Under the pre-5.3 options for capping valor on the first toon, I would have run one heroic dungeon and one normal scenario for 80 + 50 valor. But now, a single heroic scenario gives about the same valor as both of those, plus better gear rewards."

Is this the dawning of the Age of the Altaholic? Maybe it's the fact that both of these altaholic players play characters named with forms of the word "blue." Or maybe it's just that Bluespartan is a college math teacher and enjoys figuring out a formula for success. Whatever it is, let's take a look inside the week of the player who just might be WoW's reigning King of Valor.

Earlier today, we mentioned Bashiok's patch 5.2 release date estimate of late February. However, the blog post in which this tentative release date was mentioned contains a lot of great information on preparing for the patch which should not be missed.

Some of the topics covered include:

• How to reach the Isle of the Thunder King and entering the new raid instance.
• Throne of Thunder normal difficulty available in the first week, Heroic difficulty opens the week after
• Throne of Thunder on Raid Finder opens the same week as Heroic raids (Week 2) with a new section each week after that
• 480 item level needed to enter Throne of Thunder on Raid Finder
• All Valor points will be reset and converted down to Justice points
• Current Valor items will have their costs reduced (25-50% reduction)
• Valor item upgrades won't be available in patch 5.2
• Recapping the Legendary meta gem and what will happen to your Sha-Touched weapons
• Ability to champion select reputations for the first Heroic and Scenario queue of the day
• The Tillers can also help your reputation by issuing you work orders from the various factions.
• 5.2 Valor items are tied to raid reputation from boss kills and not dailies (which can be earned via Raid Finder)

If you're still looking for ways to prepare for patch 5.2, our very own Kristin wrote up some excellent points to get yourself ahead of the pack.

Patch 5.2 will bring new dailies, new factions, another raid, and a kitchen sink. It's pretty much a super patch. With so many additions, you may start to feel overwhelmed at the thought of class changes on top of new grinds -- and you know, pets and stuff. Never fear, we're here to help you prepare! Before we get too deep into this, remember that everything we've learned about patch 5.2 is from the PTR. Things can change!

• Farm (or buy) Ghost Iron. Both blacksmithing and engineering will see new unique crafting materials similar to the scribe's Scroll of Wisdom -- Lightning Steel Ingot and Stabilized Lightning Source, respectively. Both require 10 Ghost Iron bars, so snag some Ghost Iron now, and use some of it to transmute into Living Steel. Many new crafted items will require it.
• Get ahead in your Wrathion quests. In 5.2, Wrathion will ask for 40 Trillium Bars in a quest on the way to the legendary meta gems, so start gathering the ore now to get a head start.
• Get your Tillers rep to Exalted and unlock all plots. Although farming may not be appealing to everyone, Tillers rep is one of the easiest to max out. At Exalted, we'll be able to use work orders to gain rep in patch 5.2.